What anime fan doesn’t burst with excitement when they finally convince their non-anime-fan friend to tune in for an episode or two? Still, choosing a first anime for someone unfamiliar with the medium can be tricky. Your favorite show might not have an accessible narrative or suit your friend’s interests.

Magical girls have been a part of shoujo since nearly the beginning; stories of idols and other performers are almost just as old. Magical girls haven’t changed much over the years, but today’s idol shows like Love Live! are rather different when compared to works like Creamy Mami. Mitsuki of Full Moon o Sagashite (Searching for the Full Moon) has more in common with those earlier idols than she does with AKB0048 or such, but calling her a magical girl isn’t precisely right, either.

Japan sure does love Alice in Wonderland retellings, don’t they? In the manga section at my local bookstore, I can’t turn around without seeing at least one title that is Alice-inspired or at least draws from the story. Shoujo manga in particular loves Alice in Wonderland imagery, and if there isn’t an Alice-themed chapter in a series, there will probably be at least one chapter or cover image that’s inspired by it.

With the amount of retellings out there, it was only a matter of time before a reverse-harem Alice in Wonderland came into existence, reimagining characters such as the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, and others as attractive bishounen who fall in love with Alice. At first glance, this is exactly what Alice in the Country of Hearts looks like — but there’s more to this version of Wonderland than meets the eye.

She thought it was cool to cosplay, or at least, she had seen pictures in 2007, and joined in, which helped her break out of her shyness and allowed her to meet new people.

None of this necessarily meant Marlene First would become a manga editor, and, in her own words, “No, my degree is in film, and I actually wanted to go into writing for film.”

But, thanks to a suggestion from someone at VIZ Media, she’s now editing Weekly Shonen Jump’s World Trigger, Seraph of The End, and Toriko, working on the manga volumes for Kimi ni Todoke and Dragon Ball 3-in-1 Edition, and doing a lot more stuff as well. I was able to speak to her about her time as a manga editor, and somehow found out A) She met the director of Gatchaman Crowds B) she was so embarrassed to see the first Japanese editor of Gintama on her very first day at work.